I have written a book. it is a children's book and it is part one of a series. I think the concept is unique and that it will be well received. I am not too interested in illustrating, but I can do that if need be.

What I'd rather do is submit my text to a publishing company who has a staff of artists to illustrate it.

I worked in magazine publishing prebaby, but the last place was a magazine about children's books. I don't want to be too much of a downer, but it's pretty hard to break into publishing. A lot of the really big houses won't take unsolicited manuscripts from unrepresented authors. Getting an agent is very expensive and is hard to do when you're unpublished (it's a Catch-22). Your best bet is to look at all the websites of the publishers that do children's and check out their websites or call them and ask if they are accepting unsolicited ms. at this time and if they have guidelines for material to be submitted. The trick is to find someone small enough that they are taking unsolicited ms. but big enough to produce professional results. I would also go to the bookstore and look at a bunch of books and see who published them and start from that list. See what houses you seem to be drawn over and over again, because they do have styles. Don't worry about not illustrating; they won't want you to. Most authors are not also illustrators. If they chose to publish your book, they would work with an illustrator they liked. I wouldn't mess with big places like Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Little, Brown, Houghton, Harcourt, HarperCollins, and the like. Part of the key to success is finding a house that "matches" the style of your book. Certain companies serve niches. Some names to try are Peachtree in Atlanta, Barefoot (for fairy tales), and Charlesbridge in Boston. Stay away from any kind of vanity press, where you have to pay to publish your book; obviously since you are paying, they don't care about the quality of your book and as someone who had to wade through thousands of books received each week to our magazine, I can say the self-published ones generally went straight in the trash.

Beth said most of what I was going to say In my pre-baby life, I worked for a big Canadian children's book publisher and part of my job was to glance through all the unsolicited manuscripts that came through. Definitely don't illustrate - just send the text in with a short letter and a SASE. The only thing I disagree with in Beth's post is that I would bother with the big houses. You have nothing to lose except your stamp cost and lots to gain. I am also a writer and I've always found that big houses are just as welcoming as smaller ones (sometimes even more so!). Most of the time you'll just get a form letter back but that's true of all publishers - good luck!

It's true that all you have to lose is a stamp, so I guess it's not a total waste. I only said that because some of the people I knew at those places didn't even have a slush pile and threw unsolicited ms. in the garbage. But that's not always true and you never know, I guess. Another place to look at is Cricket in Chicago (part of Carus Publishing), because I know they do have a slush pile.

Well ladies, I made a very nice query letter and sent it to my first three in a nice large envelope (easy to open and read) with return SASE and a copy manuscript as it is a picture book and most places I have looked into want the copy for a picture book.

I know that this is just my first step to my first rejection letters...but it is a START!

And I will see what I can figure out about self publishing. I don't think it is a fantastic option, but I may try it ... we'll see. I will be starting with queries, though.